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Topic: Indoor tomato plant (Read 13828 times)

Has anyone ever kept a tomato plant inside all winter until spring,i want to see if there is an advantage over starting from scratch.I brought mine in before cold weather started and was plucking ripe tomatoes up till about two weeks ago.The plant is in a large planter about 7 gal. capacity its about 2ft tall and has only florescent light during the daytime,the plant has quit blooming but is still plenty green.

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Carl-I have done so much with so little for so long i can now do something with nothing!

I used to grow orchids indoors but even they were too much of a pain in a cold climate so now I don’t try to overwinter ANYTHING (except for bees :)). The problem in the winter at Northern latitudes is obviously a good source of light. I never tried any florescent lights, but it seems since their light spectrum is so spiky, they would not be the best light source for a plant. But who knows, if the emissions spikes happen to correspond with absorption spikes in the plants chloroplasts, then you’re golden!

BLUEBEE: Thanks for the info, As for the light spectrum " if i had only learned to speak GREEK" Ha. anyway at least i know it has ben done according to your article,that was my main point. I do have the plant close to two thermal pane windows and also the lights are on about 8 to 10 hrs per day.Had some darn nice slicers after they vine ripened in mid December Temp in room stays around 65 to 70 degrees night and day.I heat with wood.You cant buy vine ripened tomatoes here after the farmers markets close around September. So if this plant survives until spring i will post and let you know.It has put on some new leaves since i pruned it about two weeks ago. :)

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Carl-I have done so much with so little for so long i can now do something with nothing!

There are special fluorescent lights that they use in green houses, the spectrum of light is close to the ones that are in low energy light bulbs and ordinary fluorescent lights.To succeed remember that the summer days are long so to produce the plant will need 14-18hrs of light a day.This weekend I will bee planting chili seeds that will hopefully produce fruit this fall and will bee using ordinary fluorescent lights again as the sun is only over the horizon 6hrs so far 8-)

I know there are now formulations of phosphorous that fluoresce different than the old office standard “cool white” tubes. However they’re still driven by the UV emission lines from Mercury which are digital in nature. The fluorescing just smears the digital nature a little. :)

I’m curious to know if they’re as good at growing plants as the continuous spectrum bulbs like Halogens. I just never see a bunch of fluorescent lights on TV when the cops bust an illegal pot grow house. :-D

On of the more knowledgeable gardeners bought the more expensive kind and also used the ordinary house hold kind and couldn't see any difference in growth beetween them.

The illegal guys probably use the best of the best. Also to consider is warmth from the lights, the garden club grower had his nursery in his boiler room in the winter and early spring and then out in a greenhouse.

If you use the house hold kind it is better to go with the strongest watt you can find.

I was out garage sale shopping last summer and saw a couple of MASSIVE stadium like outdoor lights for sale at an estate sale. They were 1000 watts each. Just out of curiosity, I asked the guy what on Earth do you do with such big lights. :? He said they had mounted them on top of their barn and used them to illuminate a soccer field behind the barn. He said he could give me a great deal on them if I wanted some lights. I said NO, I had no use for such giant lights.....but how much would something like that sell for? He said he would sell me both lights (2000 watts) for $10. LOL…so now I have 2 massive stadium lights in my barn collecting dust. :laugh:

My thought is you do not need that much light to overwinter a plant.Just a little water now and then just to keep plant alive.Not trying to make it produce during winter.When spring arrives then we will see what if any advantage there may be. I am hoping if i do everything right it grows 4 ft tall with lots of large tomatoes. :)

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Carl-I have done so much with so little for so long i can now do something with nothing!

Hi, a friend of mine is a tomato grower and he is using state of the art LED($1000 a unit) lights in a grand sponsored field test. He is already growing plants here in Ohio. My wife used one of those LED's last winter in a school project(not really successful but it was run by kids).If you need more information send me a PM.Try the fluorescent aquarium lights bulbs (T5 6700°K) for planted aquariums, that's what I have for my aquarium and the light spectrum should match all plants.

Just an update on overwintering tomato plant,lasted until around Feb. then just died,so i guess my next project may work better.Started tomato plant,s early this year indoors and started moving outside when temps and sunshine permitted.So far so good plants are now about 3 foot tall and loaded with blooms and small tomato,s. May has ben crazy weather here so i have mine on small low cart that i can roll in or out when needed.Wondering if i should start pruning tops from plants to keep the height down? If i get a few slicers guess i will be happy.

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Carl-I have done so much with so little for so long i can now do something with nothing!

On my visit to Italy, a friend was growing tomatoes in a pot, with a proper trellis. He kept it indoors during the winter and relied on the sun coming in from the outside window to grow.I was amazed how much fruit the plant produced.

Just a question, is the tomato flower any good for bees gathering nectar or pollen?

mackayboi In answer to your ? they have pollen just like most blooming plants.Most flowers have pretty much the same components including tomatoes except tomato blooms have both male and female components,therefore they are self pollinating.I am now experimenting with cross pollination between two different types of tomatoes.Fairly easy and interesting. :)

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Carl-I have done so much with so little for so long i can now do something with nothing!

regarding lights and their spectrum, wattage/etc, and wintering plants and how and why they bloom:

the sun throws of a fairly consistent amount and wavelength of energy on a universal level, however, of course the relative positioning of the planet, how it is on its axis, and positioning in its orbit as well as the various pulls of other bodies masses in our system effect those waves/particles of energy and how we in whatever location we are on earth receive them. The spectrum of visible light to the human eye is roughly 390-700nm or 470-790 Thz . Bees can see much lower, as low as 300nm, in the ultra violet....they call it ultra violet, because what we have defined as the color 'violet' is about 380-450nm, and 300 is lower then that even.

due to planet orbit, rotation effects of other bodies masses, as well as our own local environment even, the spectrum of light shifts during the year as well as it's strengths. This has a effect on triggering the internal processes of the plants...ie fruiting, flowering, growing. and yes, that is a simple way of putting it, obviously a lot goes into it, including local environment, nutrition, the plants itself, etc. the various wavelengths sizes passthrough, vibrate and effect different nutrients and aspects of the plant as well as the environments around the plant which trigger these phases.

wattage is a measure of energy, not a measure of how bright a light is, it is a measurement of how much energy is gave off, but not the spectrum of energy that is gave off or the amplitude of specific wavelength strengths gave off. most florescent grow lights are very weak. there are high intensity high energy lights for growing, but they also have to give out the right spectrum of light. LEDS are now being produced to give off light in the right spectrum's, as a rule so far, LEDS generally have more narrow spectrum's of light than other types, but they are way more efficient/less costly and a lot cooler when ran. once someone understand the actual light requirements though, as well as the nutritional triggers of a plant, they can grow it indoors as easily as out, and even plants which are typically not in their grow cycles, ie annual, bi annual, etc can be tricked into renewing and staying alive /fruiting much more. tomatoes are extremely easy to do this with, not to mention using one plant as the mother plant and remaking genetic copies by using cuttings/etc with.

I was always under the impression that the normal tomato plants we plant in our gardens would DIE eventually even if brought indoors?? My mother raises them down in the florida keys and has to replant about every 7 - 9 months when they quit producing. The new plants grow and thrive for another 7 - 9 months.. year round.. Is she using the wrong kind of plants to survive/produce year round? BTW she uses the upside down buckets and always has four of them going at a time.